Toni Scheller Connor

Antionette (Toni) Scheller Connor was born in Weston, Illinois, on June 4, 1921 to Indiana natives Mary Dorothea and Frank Joseph Scheller. The family moved back to Indiana when Toni was three and she grew up with her four siblings on Napoleon Street south of Garfield Park in a house her father built. She learned the game of tennis in the park at age five and played until she was 91, switching then to pickleball for a few years until poor balance made her prone to fall. She remained an avid tennis fan until her death at home, surrounded by her loved ones, on July 12, 2021, five weeks after her 100th birthday. She attended St. Catherine of Sienna grade school and graduated from Sacred Heart High School before working for Nickel Optical Co. in the Hume Mansur Building downtown. In 1947 she married Robert Ambrose Connor and migrated to the northside where she gave birth to five children and resided the rest of her life. Widowed in 1982, she exhibited her customary intrepid approach to life, taking up painting and learning welding in order to create metal sculptures. She loved foreign and domestic travel with family and friends and remained curious about the world and its cultures to the end of her days. Being a carpenter-builder’s daughter, she knew tools and how to use them. In 1987, she bought and renovated a deteriorated 1909 cottage on Lake Michigan that her family continues to enjoy. Toni’s husband, parents and siblings Robert (Joan) Scheller, Dorothy Scheller, and Rita (Homer) Huettl died before her. Her survivors include her brother Vincent (Carol) Scheller, and her children Nancy Connor (Glenn Halberstadt), Tina Connor (Tom Bast), Bill Connor (Telene Edington), Kitzie Connor, and Bob (Jan) Connor. Her seven grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren—Colin (Sarah Koch) and Natalie and Page Koch-Connor; Moira (T.A.) and Noelle Moses; Drew (Emily) and Theodore Rizzo-Connor; Thomas and Ned Halberstadt; Nathan (Sadie) and Remi and George Connor; Aidan (Olivia Stanley) and Jude Connor—captured her heart from their first breaths. A funeral Mass will take place at 4 p.m. on Tuesday, July 27, at St. Joan of Arc Church, followed by a celebration of her long life at Woodstock Club, 5:30-7:30 p.m. In lieu of flowers, Toni’s family asks that you consider a donation to the Friends of Garfield Park, where a fund is being set up in her memory in support of the tennis program. Scroll to memorial gifts section at https://garfieldparkindy.org/giving-center/ or mail donation to Friends of Garfield Park, Inc., PO Box 33002, Indianapolis IN 46203, noting that your gift is in memory of Toni Scheller Connor.